Does anyone read biographies of mathematicians with your under 12 age children?
I found lots of books at the library, however, I think this one is exceptional, in that the stories really come alive. The book is :

Exploring The World Of Mathematics
By: John Hudson Tiner

Does anyone have any other books to recommend? Please share.
For some of us, a whole new world of beauty and wonder is opened up when we read about topics that mathematicians discovered. It helps us understand our world better. What place does this kind of math have in your learning experiences?

Hi Theodore,
I checked, on-line, and the library in our district has this book. I am going to inter-library loan it. I also saw that the author, Jean Lee Latham, has written many biographies. So, I am pretty excited. I'm sure my daughter will read this one first, since it won an award. Anyway, thanks for telling me your favorite.
Let me know if you think of any others.
Have you read, The Phantom Tollbooth?
I had never heard of it.
I think I, personally, have a lot of reading to do, to catch up on some good books that I missed growing up.

Did you know that Lewis Caroll (actually that's his penname, as I'm sure you already know--I forgot his real name) was a mathematician?
Have you read any good non-fiction, non-text book math books?
Have you heard of Theoni Pappas? Check out her books and you'll find some writings about Lewis Carroll and much more.....
One more thing I just found, only I have a slight problem with it....,
is Edhelper.com has a new study unit on the history of mathematics. They only let you read the first part of each story, however, they give them catchy titles to get your attention. At least it's a place to start, if you don't want to get a lot of books, and want your child (and/or yourself) to read and be introduced to the history of math which is sadly overlooked a lot, and not considered important by some.
I also saw a timeline there which is available to members only. I think I could make one myself. I just need to plan all this out. I see this "project coming together.
Thanks for your input.

My brother and I really got a lot out of the book "Mathematics" from the Time-Life Science Library. I've met several other math-types who've said - like me - that the reason they went into math was because of this book. Probably most libraries have it, as part of the T-L Science Library set. It has interesting chapter text of 8-12 pages, followed by a section of photographs and comments on a theme, with 8-9 chapters total. My mom bought the whole library for us, and one thing that was nice was just having these books available to peruse and read and page through.

By the way, the OTHER book that drew me into math was - of all things - ..... a comic book: "Donald Duck in Mathmagic Land." There is a video of the same name, which is good, but like most movies made from books, the book was far better - even if it was a comic book. I remember reading this comic book dozens and dozens of times, and as a 3rd-4th grader, I remember trying to figure out the rice-grains-on-the-chess-board problem, starting with 1 grain on the first square, the 2 on the second square, then doubling again to 4 on the third square, then 8 on the fourth square, then 16 on the fifth square, etc. - up through the 64th square. I was well into some 5-digit or 6-digit numbers - always just multiplying the previous number by 2 BY HAND - before I gave up, but I learned some valuable things about the magnitudes of numbers and what I later learned were exponents and specifically powers of 2.

Thanks, Bob
I love looking at the 500's at the bigger library; ours is too small; I will look for these books. My 9 yr old ds,just loves math and reads "grown-up" math books, so I will look for these and others at the library. I think photos always help make it more interesting.
Thanks.

Hey you,
I have that book by Eves .
I used it in college and kept it.
Now my 10 yr old son has it in his collection of math books. I use it once in awhile for reference. I'm not sure when he will start doing math problems from it, however, he is reading books from the adult section at the library now.
It has a very good time line on the cover, too.
Thanks for the input.